FELLOWSHIP  PAPERS 


A  More  Excellent  Way 


RUFUS  M.  JONES 


FELLOWSHIP  PAPERS 

A  More  Excellent  Way,  by  Rufus  M.  Jones, 
Litt.D.  Ready  October,  191G. 

Personality  and  War,  by  W.  Fearon  Halliday, 
M.A.  (Republished  from  “Christ  and  Peace.”) 
Ready  October,  1916. 

A  New  Internationalism,  by  William  I.  Hull, 
Ph.D.  Ready  January,  1917. 

The  Seeds  of  War  in  the  Social  Order,  by 
Rev.  Willard  L.  Sperry.  Ready  December, 
1916. 

Social  Reform  Begins  at  Home,  by  David  R. 
Porter.  Ready  December,  1916. 

Can  Prayer  Accomplish  Anything  Apart  from 
the  Man  Who  Prays?  by  Edward  I.  Bos- 
worth,  D.D.  Ready  October,  1916. 

Fellowship  Papers  can  be  obtained  from  Associa¬ 
tion  Press  at  10  cents  per  copy,  80  cents  per  dozen, 
or  $5.00  per  hundred.  Orders  for  a  dozen  or  more 
copies  may  include  any  assortment  of  Papers. 

Inquiries,  suggestions,  or  criticisms  relating  to  the 
views  expressed  in  any  of  the  Papers  will  be  appre¬ 
ciated  by  The  Fellowship  of  Reconciliation.  Its 
statement  of  principles  and  information  concerning 
its  work  will  be  gladly  furnished  on  request.  Com¬ 
munications  of  this  nature  should  be  addressed  to 
The  Fellowship  of  Reconciliation,  125  East  27th 
Street,  New  York  City. 


A  More  Excellent  Way 


By 

RUFUS  M.  JONES 


gfotfoctatton 

New  York:  124  East  28th  Street 
London:  47  Paternoster  Row,  E.  C. 

1916 


FELLOWSHIP  PAPERS 

After  nineteen  hundred  years  of  Christian  profes¬ 
sion  all  Christendom  today  stands  reproached  by 
the  tragic  evidences  of  its  failure  to  establish  Chris¬ 
tian  practice.  The  war  is  not  simply  proclaiming 
the  violation  of  Christian  principles  between  na¬ 
tions.  It  is  laying  bare  the  heart  of  twentieth 
century  civilization  and  is  disclosing  widespread  dis¬ 
regard  of  Christian  standards  in  sordid  commer¬ 
cialism,  industrial  strife,  and  social  injustice.  In 
the  events  of  the  present  time  there  are  compelling 
reasons  why  the  Christian  conscience  should  be 
quickened  to  penitence  and  roused  to  discover  what 
deep-seated  misconception  of  the  personality  and 
principles  of  Christ  or  what  fatal  facility  for  com¬ 
promise  has  been  responsible  for  the  failure  to  make 
His  will  effective  in  the  social  order. 

The  Fellowship  of  Reconciliation  unites  a  group 
of  Christian  seekers  for  a  better  way  of  life.  It  is 
founded  in  the  faith  that  love  as  revealed  in  the 
life,  teachings,  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ  is  not 
only  the  fundamental  basis  of  a  true  human  society, 
but  the  effective  power  for  overcoming  evil,  and  that 
loyalty  to  humanity  and  to  Christ  calls  His  fol¬ 
lowers  to  new  endeavors  to  practice  love  unswerv¬ 
ingly  at  whatever  cost,  and  to  make  it  supreme  in 
personal,  social,  industrial,  national,  and  interna¬ 
tional  life. 

Fellowship  Papers  are  issued  in  the  hope  that 
they  may  stimulate  thought  and  action  with  regard 
to  practical  applications  of  these  principles.  They 
are  not  to  be  understood,  however,  as  necessarily 
expressing  the  views  of  all  the  members  of  the 
Fellowship.  While  it  is  hoped  to  preserve  through¬ 
out  the  series  the  same  general  approach,  the  indi¬ 
vidual  authors  are  alone  responsible  for  the  state¬ 
ments  contained  in  their  respective  Papers. 


Copyright,  1916,  by  Edward  W.  Evans 


A  MORE  EXCELLENT  WAY 

We  live  in  a  strangely  altered  world.  As 
by  a  flash  of  lightning  from  a  thunder  cloud 
the  European  war  has  revealed  to  us  the 
moral  confusion  and  disorder  that  lie  con¬ 
cealed  in  a  civilization  heavily  weighted  with 
materialistic  aims.  As  a  man  is  awakened 
out  of  sleep,  we  have  been  awakened  by  this 
vast  tragedy  and  we  suddenly  see  how  in¬ 
adequate  for  the  higher  life  of  men  and  of 
society  and  of  nations  are  the  basic  prin¬ 
ciples  by  which  the  civilized  world  has  been 
trying  to  live.  By  facts  and  experiences 
that  have  burned  themselves  into  our  con¬ 
sciousness  we  are  forced  to  discover  a  truer 
and  more  adequate  moral  basis  for  the 
world  that  is  to  emerge  out  of  this  present 
catastrophe.  The  constructive  task  laid 
upon  our  generation  calls  for  something 
more  than  diplomacy  and  statesmanship. 
It  calls  for  a  re-discovery  of  the  spiritual 
energies  that  construct  the  world.  The  new 
order  of  things  which  we  hope  and  pray 
may  rise  out  of  the  wreck  of  the  old  civiliza- 

3 


tion,  which  is  now  being  ground  in  the  awful 
millstones  of  war,  can  come  forth  into  life 
and  power  only  through  the  operation  of 
positive  spiritual  forces  on  a  greater  scale 
than  has  ever  been  known  before. 

These  new  energies  of  life  are  to  be  found 
in  the  primitive  Christian  gospel,  taken  se¬ 
riously  and  practically  as  a  way  of  life  and 
action.  The  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  not 
for  Utopia — some  dream  land  built  out  of 
sheer  imagination — but  for  this  mixed  world 
of  ours.  We  have  no  way  of  knowing  what 
other  worlds  are  like.  We  search  in  vain  for 
the  scenery  and  conditions  of  life  beyond 
our  sphere  of  time  and  space.  What  we  do 
possess  is  a  luminous  account  of  the  laws 
and  conditions  that  underlie  and  determine 
complete  and  perfect  human  life  in  this 
world  where  we  are. 

The  gospel  presents  first  of  all  an  actual 
instance  of  a  perfect  personal  life.  When 
we  go  back  to  the  head-waters  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  we  come  not  to  a  metaphysical 
theory,  or  a  theological  dogma,  or  a  ca¬ 
pricious  fancy  constructed  out  of  exuberant 
hopes — we  come  to  a  personal  exhibition  of 
divine  Life  revealed  in  human  life,  the 
eternal  in  the  midst  of  time.  We  come  to 

4 


One  who  felt  in  His  own  consciousness  union 
of  mind  and  heart  and  will  with  God,  and 
who  was  at  the  same  time  so  truly  of  our 
nature  that  we  see  in  Him,  as  we  see  no¬ 
where  else,  the  goal  and  type  of  complete 
normal,  spiritual  life. 

The  gospel  is  primarily  a  Person.  It  is 
not  a  code,  it  is  a  Life.  It  is  not  a  system, 
it  is  an  Incarnation.  It  is  not  a  body  of 
commands,  it  is  the  warm  and  intimate 
appeal  of  a  Person  who  has  felt  and  known 
the  mystery  and  tragedy  of  this  strange 
struggle  of  ours  and  who  through  it  all  has 
triumphed.  It  is  not  a  magical  way  of 
escape  from  pain  and  vicissitude,  it  is  the 
personal  inspiration  of  One  who  can  say,  in 
quiet  simplicity,  “I  am  the  Truth,”  “I  am 
the  Life,”  “I  am  the  Way,”  “I  am  the 
Door.”  This  is  the  innermost  gospel — the 
gospel  within  the  gospel — this  harmonized 
Will,  this  completely  adjusted  Person  who 
shows  us  for  once  Life  as  it  ought  to  be. 

In  close  and  intimate  conjunction  with 
this  innermost  gospel  there  is  a  no  less 
amazing  and  wonderful  gospel-strand,  deal¬ 
ing  with  the  possibilities  and  implications  of 
our  own  human  life.  Its  diagnosis  of  human 
nature  as  it  is  now  is  tremendously  searching 

5 


and  its  account  is  grave  and  sober:  There  is 
something  radically  wrong  within.  Man’s 
nature  carries  in  it  a  hampering  element 
that  tends  to  spoil  the  life.  There  is  a 
serious  taint  in  the  stuff,  a  twist  in  the 
fiber,  a  weakness  in  the  grain.  Man  does 
not  do  what  he  is  meant  to  do.  He  does 
not  follow  his  wisdom.  He  misses  the  mark, 
he  goes  astray,  he  gets  lost.  But  in  spite  of 
this  elemental  fact  of  nature,  which  all 
human  experience  verifies  and  the  common 
consciousness  of  the  race  acknowledges,  the 
gospel  is  exceedingly  optimistic  about  man. 
There  are  no  set  limits  to  his  possibilities. 
There  is  no  known  terminus  to  his  destiny. 
There  is  no  fixed  stopping  place  for  his 
potential  personality.  This  gospel  uses 
breathlessly  bold  words  of  prophecy  about 
us.  “You  are,”  it  says,  “to  be  perfect 
even  as  your  Father  is  perfect.”  “You  are 
to  learn  how  to  forgive  even  as  your  Father 
in  heaven  forgives.”  “You  are  to  love,” 
this  perfect  Lover  of  men  tells  us,  “even  as 
I  have  loved  you.”  “All  things  are  possible 
for  him  who  believe th.”  “Greater  things 
than  these  which  you  have  seen  me  do  shall 
you  do.” 

This  high  expectation  is  not  due  to  blind 

6 


enthusiastic  hope.  It  is  deeply  and  solidly 
based,  as  everything  in  the  gospel  is  based, 
on  the  fundamental  nature  of  man’s  soul 
and  on  the  inexhaustible  resources  of  the 
God  who  is  here  revealed.  The  spiritual 
transformations,  which  are  the  matters  of 
real  importance  in  the  history  of  Chris¬ 
tianity,  are  not  in  violation  of  the  laws  of 
the  universe;  they  exhibit  and  illustrate  the 
essential  laws  of  life.  The  highest  spiritual 
experiences,  the  supreme  beatitudes  of  reli¬ 
gion,  all  attach  inevitably  and  inherently  to 
the  nature  of  life.  As  we  go  up  in  the  scale 
we  do  not  leave  laws  behind  and  go  to  a 
vacuum  region  beyond  laws;  we  rather  come 
under  the  operation  of  higher  laws  and  enter 
upon  a  region  where  new  and  unexpected 
forces  and  energies  come  into  play.  The 
most  wonderful  thing  about  the  gospel  is  its 
proclamation,  its  impressive  revelation  of 
these  higher  laws  and  forces  and  energies. 
The  amazing  faith  in  the  possibilities  of 
men,  and  all  the  astonishing  expectations 
that  are  crowded  into  the  gospel  have  their 
ground  in  a  new  and  deeper  knowledge  of 
those  regions  and  levels  of  life  that  had  not 
been  explored  and  charted  before.  We  are 
dealing  here  with  a  fresh  invasion  of  life 

7 


and  with  a  corresponding  revelation  of  its 
fundamental  laws  and  principles.  So  many 
things  project  and  stand  out  and  call  for 
comment  in  this  revelation  of  life  that  it  is 
not  easy  to  select  the  transcendently  im¬ 
portant  features.  But  there  are  two  peaks 
of  truth  that  show  forth  in  peculiar  splendor 
and  dominance:  (1)  The  redemptive  or  con¬ 
quering  power  of  love ;  (2)  The  irresistible  ex¬ 
pansion  of  the  Kingdom  of  God . 

Christ  was  not  the  first  to  proclaim  the 
redemptive  power  of  love.  There  were 
flashes  and  gleams  of  its  discovery  as  a 
principle  of  life  not  only  in  Hosea,  and  in 
“the  suffering  servant”  chapters  of  Isaiah, 
but  also  in  Euripides  and  Plato,  in  the 
stories  of  the  Buddha  and  in  the  highest 
reaches  of  almost  all  pre-christian  literature. 
Christ  brought  it  from  the  dim  light  of 
dawn  to  full  sunrise  radiance.  He  raised 
it  to  its  nth  power  as  a  law  and  way  of  life. 
At  no  point  of  His  teaching  or  of  His 
practice  did  He  strike  across  and  reverse 
popular  opinion  more  completely  than  in 
His  enunciation  and  exhibition  of  this  sac¬ 
rificial  and  redemptive  law  of  life.  The 
people  about  Him  all  expected  a  Messiah 

who  would  be  a  world-ruler,  a  greater 

8 


David,  a  breaker  of  the  oppressor’s  yoke,  a 
mighty  “restorer  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel.” 
He  would  be,  in  His  own  power,  “the 
chariots  of  Israel  and  the  horsemen  thereof.” 
Every  sign  of  the  possession  of  magical 
power  rallied  the  multitude  to  Him.  They 
were  ready  to  shout  “Hosanna”  the  moment 
they  were  convinced  that  their  strong  de¬ 
liverer  had  come. 

He  finally  disappointed  their  hopes.  He 
persistently  refused  to  follow  the  lines  of 
popular  expectation.  The  jeer  of  the  mob 
shows  why  they  lost  faith  in  Him:  “He  saved 
others,  Himself  He  could  not  save.”  But 
there  is  no  better  statement  of  the  central 
principle  of  life  than  that.  Repeatedly  it 
came  from  His  own  lips  in  the  paradoxical 
words  of  His  teaching:  “He  that  saves  him¬ 
self  loses  himself,  and  he  that  loses  himself 
finds  himself.”  It  was  His  purpose,  not  to 
change  the  map  of  the  world,  not  to  set  up 
one  king  in  place  'of  another,  not  to  shift  the 
capital  from  one  hill  to  another,  not  to  in¬ 
augurate  a  new  political  empire  for  an  old 
one — it  was  His  purpose  to  create  a  society 
of  persons,  liberated  from  their  old  nature 
by  a  fresh  discovery  of  God,  shrinking  from 
sin  and  abhorring  it,  because  they  had 

9 


found  the  divine  meaning  of  life,  throbbing 
with  joy  because  a  new  world  and  new 
dimensions  of  being  had  opened  out  on 
their  vision,  living  no  longer  by  rivalry 
and  competition,  but  living  by  love  and  its 
contagious  power. 

There  is  only  one  way  to  produce  that 
kind  of  a  society.  It  does  not  come  by 
command.  It  cannot  be  created  by  act  of 
legislature  or  by  sovereign  edict.  No  force 
of  battalions  can  compel  it.  It  can  come 
only  by  spiritual  processes.  The  way  to 
create  a  society  like  that  is  to  begin  by 
exhibiting  it  in  a  life  that  incarnates  and 
embodies  it.  The  only  way  to  produce  love 
as  an  operative  force  of  life  is  to  trust 
love  completely — and  to  love  regardless  of 
all  cost.  The  only  way  to  reveal  the  nature 
of  God  as  love  and  to  carry  it  as  a  construc¬ 
tive  force  into  the  tissues  of  the  social  world 
is  to  translate  it  into  the  vital  stuff  of  actual 
life,  to  make  it  visible  and  vocal.  The  only 
way  to  break  the  drift  of  sin  and  the  in¬ 
stinctive  drive  of  selfishness  is  to  kindle  a 
new  and  higher  passion  and  to  set  a  new 
attraction  at  work. 

Just  this  Christ  did,  and  He  did  it  in  such 
a  way  that  it  comes  to  light,  not  merely  as 

10 


the  highest  law  of  life  for  earth,  but  as  the  es¬ 
sential  nature  of  the  divine  character  as  well. 

There  is  a  striking  verse  in  Mark’s  narra¬ 
tive  (Mark  x.  32)  which  is  a  crucial  passage 
for  understanding  the  unfolding  of  Christ’s 
purpose:  4 ‘And  they  were  on  their  way 
going  up  to  Jerusalem;  and  Jesus  was  going 
on  before;  and  they  were  amazed;  and  they 
that  followed  were  afraid.”  This  is  not  a 
chance  item  in  an  itinerary.  It  is  a  crisis 
of  consciousness,  a  watershed  moment  in  a 
life-purpose.  Until  then  the  stress  had  been 
on  proclamation;  He  had  been  a  teacher. 
He  had  dwelt  upon  great  ideas,  presented 
with  new  perspective,  new  illustrations,  and 
new  authority.  Men  listened  to  His  mes¬ 
sage,  were  aroused  by  its  novelty  and  fresh¬ 
ness.  They  approved  of  His  words.  They 
hailed  with  joy  the  good  news  of  unex¬ 
pected  privileges.  But  they  remained  en¬ 
trenched  in  selfishness.  The  Pharisees 
made  no  new  adjustment  to  fit  the  mes¬ 
sage.  Even  His  simple  Galilean  friends, 
with  all  their  enthusiasm,  were  still  fast 
bound  in  habit  and  instinct  and  selfish  de¬ 
sires.  They  saw  a  better  life,  but  they 
were  not  ready  to  pay  the  price  for  it.  The 

old  diseases  of  nature  and  society  were 

11 


eating  away  at  the  heart  of  life.  Some¬ 
thing  more  must  be  tried,  some  greater 
dynamic  must  be  discovered,  some  other 
force  must  be  brought  into  operation,  a 
new  step  must  be  ventured.  He  must 
make  the  last  and  greatest  appeal  within  a 
person’s  gift  and  power.  He  must  be  ready 
to  go  the  whole  way.  He  must  eliminate 
all  secondary  considerations,  all  thought  of 
self,  all  expedient  and  utilitarian  methods 
and  stake  everything  on  the  uttermost  ap¬ 
peal  of  love.  Calvary  is  the  answer. 

The  world,  with  its  crude  theories  and  its 

arid  metaphysical  theologies,  has  wrapped 

this  central  fact  of  spiritual  history  round 

with  its  own  clumsy  coverings,  but  again 

and  again  the  warm,  tender,  vital  truth, 

with  its  liberating  and  inspiring  power,  has 

burst  open  the  veils  that  cover  it  and  has 

broken  in  like  a  newly  risen  sun  and 

wakened  men  out  of  their  sleep,  made 

their  selfishness  seem  abhorrent  and  the 

way  of  love  seem  the  only  way  of  life.  The 

greatest  of  the  spiritual  awakenings  down 

through  the  centuries  of  Christian  history 

have  come  as  a  result  of  the  re-discovery 

of  the  power  of  love  as  revealed  in  Jesus 

Christ,  the  fresh  recovery  of  the  living  fact, 

12 


the  unveiled  vision  of  One  who  loved  men 
and  without  any  reserve  gave  Himself  for 
them — of  One  who  absolutely  trusted  love  to 
redeem  and  to  conquer. 

This  way  of  life — the  way  which  He  ex¬ 
hibited  and  raised  to  its  full  glory — is  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  The  Kingdom  is  not 
primarily  a  post  mortem  state,  it  is  not  a 
thing  of  geography,  it  is  not  a  political 
achievement,  it  is  not  a  millennial  dream. 
It  is  a  way  of  living.  It  is  a  spirit,  a  dis¬ 
position,  a  rightly  fashioned  will.  It  is  a 
settled,  tested,  unqualified  confidence  in 
love  and  a  practice  of  it  as  a  way  of  life. 
The  Kingdom  has  come  in  its  essential 
meaning  as  soon  as  there  is  one  person  in 
the  world  who  has  attained  the  Abba- 
crying  experience,  the  certainty  of  the 
Father-son  relationship  with  God,  and  who 
has  added  to  this  upward  relationship  of 
love  to  God  the  outward  reaching  attitude 
of  love  to  all  men — the  relationship  of 
brothers.  But  on  the  other  hand  the  King¬ 
dom  is  the  total  divine  task  and  consumma¬ 
tion  of  the  ages.  It  is  the  unending 
continuation  of  the  work  of  creation,  the 
making  of  man.  So  long  as  men  are  still 

selfish,  so  long  as  human  relationships  re- 

13 


main  untransformed  by  love,  so  long  as 
there  are  social  evils  to  be  eradicated,  the 
Kingdom  will  not  have  fully  come.  In  fact 
no  earthly  achievement,  no  temporal  stage, 
can  completely  express  the  full  idea  of  the 
Kingdom,  for  it  includes  in  its  entire  mean¬ 
ing  both  the  visible  and  the  invisible,  the 
temporal  and  the  eternal  triumph  of  the 
spiritual  purpose  of  God. 

The  Kingdom  expands  as  fast  as  this 
contagion  of  love,  awakened  by  the  perfect 
incarnation  of  it,  conquers  men’s  hearts  and 
carries  them  into  this  way  of  life.  It  does 
not  come  by  ‘ ‘observation.”  It  is  not  a 
spectacle  to  behold.  It  is  not  an  event  of 
date  or  locality.  It  is  coming  now.  It  is 
coming  always.  A  Russian  student  who  re¬ 
fused  to  serve  in  the  army,  because  he  be¬ 
lieved  war  to  be  contrary  to  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  was  told  by  his  commander  that 
his  “idea”  was  right,  but  that  the  Kingdom 
had  not  come  yet.  “No,  sire,”  the  student 
answered,  “it  may  not  have  come  to  you, 
but  it  has  come  to  me.”  The  great  spiritual 
question  for  any  man  is,  how  seriously  he 
takes  this  way  of  life,  how  far  he  is  ready 
to  go  with  Christ,  how  completely  he  trusts 
love  as  a  method,  how  determined  he  is  to 

14 


back  his  “idea”  with  his  life  and  all  he 
holds  dear. 

This  double  fellowship  of  love,  a  love  that 
joins  one’s  life  in  joyous  union  with  God  as 
Father  and  that  binds  the  same  life  into 
self-giving  social  relationship  with  a  world 
of  brothers — this  conjunct  life  is  the  King¬ 
dom  of  God.  It  has  not  come  yet  for  the 
whole  world.  It  is  only  in  its  dawning 
stage.  There  are  large  areas  of  darkness 
left.  There  are  terrible  moral  diseases  still 
unhealed.  There  are  great  stretches  of 
jungle  which  the  organizing  forces  of  love 
have  not  yet  conquered.  Marks  of  moral 
imperfection  mar  both  the  individual  life 
and  the  social  system.  The  goal  is  still  far 
away  and  there  is  yet  much  travail  and 
tragedy  to  be  endured.  But  there  are  per¬ 
sons  living  now  for  whom,  as  for  this 
Russian  student,  the  Kingdom  has  come — 
persons  who  in  this  complex  and  difficult 
world  are  minded  to  practice  love,  intelli¬ 
gently  applied,  as  a  way  of  life. 

It  must  not  for  a  moment  be  supposed 
that  war  is  the  only  form  of  evil  which  is 
inconsistent  with  the  spirit  of  the  Kingdom. 
It  happens  at  this  crisis  that  war  stands  out 
in  all  its  horror  as  a  violation  of  the  way  of 


15 


love.  But  we  cannot  stop  the  ministry 
of  reconciliation  until  we  have  applied  the 
remedial  force  of  love  to  every  feature  of 
the  social  life  which  works  wrong  and  in¬ 
justice  to  any  of  our  fellow  men,  or  to  any 
groups  of  them  anywhere. 

There  is,  however,  nothing  in  the  proper 
sense  of  the  word  unpractical  about  this 
way  of  life,  nor  is  it  in  any  way  an  irra¬ 
tional  course  of  action.  On  the  contrary, 
it  proves  to  be  both  practical  and  highly 
rational.  There  is  no  essential  conflict  be¬ 
tween  the  method  of  love  and  the  use  of 
force,  so  long  as  force  is  used  as  discipline 
and  not  as  destruction.  The  real  problem 
is  to  discover  where  to  mark  the  limits  of 
force.  The  early  stages  of  moral  discipline, 
both  in  the  history  of  the  child  and  of  the 
race,  prove  beyond  any  question  that  re¬ 
straints  and  constraints  play  a  great  role  in 
the  formative  process  of  fixing  and  settling 
the  distinction  between  right  and  wrong, 
goodness  and  badness.  Nature  herself  has 
a  forceful  way  of  driving  into  the  con¬ 
sciousness  of  youthful  learners  her  prefer¬ 
ences  in  the  matter  of  conduct  and  she  has 
a  sphinx-like  way  of  telling  her  children 

that  the  way  of  the  transgressor  is  not  only 

16 


hard,  but  impossible.  Nature’s  method  is 
tremendously  effective,  but  it  is  slow  and 
the  lesson  is  often  long-delayed.  Society 
does  not  wait  for  the  slow  sequences  of 
natural  processes.  Parents  and  moral  guard¬ 
ians  anticipate  results  and,  drawing  from  the 
experience  of  the  race,  they  apply  artificial 
restraints  and  constraints  and  so  save  the 
learner  many  bitter  lessons.  But  no  wise 
guardian  supposes  that  the  work  of  moral¬ 
izing  can  be  carried  very  far  by  methods  of 
force  and  constraint.  Higher  agencies  must 
come  into  operation  before  the  goal  is 
reached.  Remarkable  results  have  already 
been  attained  in  all  educational  work  by 
the  substitution  of  the  moral  and  psycho¬ 
logical  appeal  for  the  use  of  force,  and  still 
more  impressive  is  the  transformation  that 
has  been  wrought  in  penal  institutions  by 
the  introduction  of  higher  agencies  in  the 
place  of  force,  for  correcting,  reforming,  and 
redeeming  those  who  have  gone  seriously 
astray.  The  world  has  only  begun  to  realize 
the  immense  effectiveness  of  love  and  con¬ 
secration  even  with  the  criminal  classes,  and 
great  results  will  follow  their  enlarged  and 
improved  application. 

So,  too,  it  must  be  admitted  that  some  of 


the  civilizing  work  of  the  world  has  been 
done  in  the  earlier  stages  by  methods  of 
conflict  and  warfare.  Fighting  is  no  doubt 
a  primitive  instinct,  and  instinct  can  be 
trusted  to  steer  beings  until  there  is  more 
adequate  light  to  steer  by.  There  have 
been  wars  which  left  men  further  on  at  the 
end  than  at  the  beginning,  though  it  would 
be  difficult  to  prove  that  it  was  the  military 
method  or  the  successful  homicide  that  se¬ 
cured  the  advantage.  Certain  desirable 
qualities  have  no  doubt  been  stimulated  by 
war  at  its  best,  though  even  here  it  was  the 
moral  issue — the  appeal  of  the  ideal — 
rather  than  the  killing,  that  called  forth 
the  heroic  virtues  and  the  admirable  traits. 

But  even  if  we  could  grant  all  that  can  be 

claimed  of  fruitful  results  from  this  ancient 

method  of  instinct,  what  a  price  is  paid  for 

it!  Charles  Lamb  has  told  in  his  humorous 

essay  how  the  men  in  China  got  their  roast 

pig.  Through  an  accidental  fire  a  Chinese 

chanced  to  discover  how  very  good  to  eat 

was  the  pig  which  the  fire  had  caught  in  its 

flames  and  roasted  to  a  crisp.  Knowing  no 

other  method,  he  and  the  other  Chinese, 

who  had  learned  the  taste,  proceeded  to 

burn  down  their  houses  whenever  they 

18 


wanted  roast  pig.  The  method  of  war  is  a 
similar  kind  of  economy.  It  burns  down 
the  house  and  the  town,  lays  waste  the 
land,  mortgages  the  resources  of  the  future, 
kills  the  finest  physical  specimens  of  the 
nation,  and  tears  with  its  merciless  plow¬ 
share  through  the  homes  and  hearts  of  the 
combatants  on  both  sides,  in  order  to  get 
results  which  could  always  be  better  se¬ 
cured  by  Christian  methods  even  though 
they  are  slow,  as  are  all  rational,  moral,  and 
educative  methods.  Other  agencies,  higher 
methods,  are  now  available.  The  old  way 
is  antiquated  and  out-dated,  and  morally 
condemned.  Truth  and  righteousness  have 
now  found  other  defenses  than  the  segis  of 
the  strong  arm.  They  are  no  longer  at  the 
mercy  of  blind  instinct.  While  instinct  was 
in  full  operation,  and  before  reflection  and 
conscience  arose,  there  was  naturally  no  sense 
of  condemnation.  The  bee  is  not  conscious 
of  wrongdoing  in  appropriating  honey  from 
clover  which  belongs  to  another.  But  as 
soon  as  the  incomparable  worth  and  sanc¬ 
tity  of  personality  become  clear,  as  soon  as 
the  meaning  of  social  relationship  and  cor¬ 
porate  life  is  attained,  as  soon  as  the 
majesty  and  power  of  love  have  been 

19 


proved,  the  destructive  method  of  war 
seems  then  to  the  awakened  conscience  in¬ 
herently  an  evil  way,  not  to  be  sanctioned 
or  endured.  War  now  stands  out  in  irre¬ 
concilable  conflict  with  the  spirit  of  love 
and  with  the  central  principle  of  the  King¬ 
dom  of  God,  to  which  the  highest  loyalty  is 
due.  There  cannot  be  any  occasion  that 
warrants  the  suspension  of  the  higher  way, 
now  that  it  has  been  discovered  and  its 
power  revealed.  Love  cannot  deny  its  own 
nature,  and  sanction  the  way  of  hate  and 
rapine.  It  must  continue,  however  dark 
the  hour,  however  extreme  the  crisis,  to 
hope  all  things,  to  believe  all  things,  and,  if 
necessary,  to  endure  all  things.  It  is,  never¬ 
theless,  no  soft  and  acquiescent  attitude.  It 
does  not  surrender  with  free  hands  the 
reins  to  the  capricious  will  of  evil  men. 
There  is  always  a  majesty  attaching  to  de¬ 
termined  moral  goodness.  Love  in  this  wide 
and  deep  social  and  corporate  meaning  is 
power  and  not  weakness.  It  will  flame 
forth  in  moral  indignation  when  injustice 
threatens.  It  will  register  its  voice  and 
vote  for  righteousness  with  no  uncertain 
sound.  It  can  speak  and  act  with  a  force 
quite  as  effective  as  that  of  guns.  It  is 


possible  to  be  militant  with  other  weapons 
than  guns  and  swords.  There  are  other 
paths  to  victory  besides  those  of  destruc¬ 
tion  and  death.  It  is  not  inconsistent  with 
the  spirit  of  love  to  employ  in  behalf  of  truth 
and  goodness  the  mightiest  forces  in  the 
universe,  so  long  as  they  are  forces  adapted 
to  the  constructive  purposes  of  love. 

In  a  world  diverse  as  ours  is  there  will 
naturally  be  at  any  one  stage  of  history  a 
strange  mingling  of  the  old  way  and  the 
new  way,  of  the  past  and  the  future,  of  ex¬ 
ponents  of  force  and  exponents  of  love. 
The  way  of  the  Kingdom  is  not  set  up  by 
miracle.  It  4 'comes”  by  the  slow  triumph 
of  one  type  of  life  over  other  types.  Those 
who  have  been  awakened  and  who  see  the 
vision  are  called  to  live  in  this  unfinished 
world  by  laws  and  principles  which  are  only 
partially  and  feebly  recognized.  It  requires 
courage  and  it  demands  high  faith.  But 
the  way  to  make  laws  and  principles  spread 
and  grow  and  prevail  is  to  acknowledge 
them  as  true,  to  accept  them  as  the  way  of 
life,  and  to  carry  them,  as  far  as  can  be 
done,  into  operation  in  the  complex  affairs 
of  daily  life.  There  is  no  clearer  call,  or 

more  rational  appeal,  or  higher  loyalty  than 

21 


those  which  rise  out  of  the  fellowship  with 
Christ,  and,  cost  what  they  may,  there  is 
no  nobler  venture  than  to  obey  the  call,  to 
answer  the  appeal,  to  live  by  this  loyalty. 


22 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  following  is  a  brief  list  of  books  dealing  with 
some  fundamental  aspects  of  Christianity  and  its 
application  to  practical  affairs.  These  books  can  be 
ordered  from  Association  Press,  124  East  28th 
Street,  New  York  City. 

The  Practice  of  Christianity.  By  the  author 
of  “Pro  Christo  et  Ecclesia.”  The  Macmillan 
Co.  $1.50. 

Christ  and  Peace.  Essays  by  various  authors. 
Headley  Bros.  35  cents. 

The  Venturer.  A  monthly  journal  of  Christian 
Thought  and  Practice.  Headley  Bros.  $1.00 
per  year.  Subscriptions  may  be  sent  to 
Association  Press. 

The  Social  Principles  of  Jesus.  By  Walter 
Rauschenbusch.  A  Course  of  Daily  Studies. 
Association  Press.  50  cents. 

Personal  Economy  and  Social  Reform.  By 
H.  G.  Wood,  M.A.  Association  Press.  50 
cents. 

Christ’s  Message  of  the  Kingdom.  By  A.  G. 
Hogg,  M.A.  A  Course  of  Daily  Studies.  As¬ 
sociation  Press.  80  cents. 


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